Halomonas pellis sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from wetsalted hides

Abstract

A Gram-stain-negative, moderately halophilic strain, designated strain L5T, was isolated from wetsalted hides collected from Chengdu, south-west PR China. The cells were motile, facultative aerobic, short rod-shaped and non-endospore-forming. Growth of strain L5T occurred at pH 6–10 (optimum, pH 8), 10–45 °C (optimum, 30 °C) and in the presence of 1–17 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 10 %). Results of phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA, gyrB and rpoD gene sequences and its genome revealed that strain L5T belonged to the genus Halomonas . Strain L5T was found to be most closely related to the type strains of Halomonas saliphila , Halomonas lactosivorans , Halomonas kenyensis , Halomonas daqingensis and Halomonas desiderata (98.8, 98.6, 98.3, 97.9 and 97.4 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, respectively). The draft genome was approximately 4.2 Mb in size with a G+C content of 63.5 mol%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values among strain L5T and the selected Halomonas species were 83.3–88.9 % (ANIm), 71.1–87.3 % (ANIb) and 20.2–34.6 %, which are below the recommended cutoff values. Major fatty acids were C16 : 0, C16 : 1  ω7c, C18 : 1  ω7c and C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c and the predominant ubiquinone was Q-9, with minor ubiquinone Q-8 also present. The phospholipid profile consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, four unidentified aminophospholipids and three unidentified phospholipids. Based on the mentioned polyphasic taxonomic evidence, strain L5T represents a novel species within the genus Halomonas , for which Halomonas pellis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is L5T (=CGMCC 1.17335T=KCTC 72573T).